With the summer sun rising higher in the sky every day, outside temperatures are getting so hot that you can often feel cooped up with your kids. If you’re looking for fun and engaging ways to keep your clan entertained without getting too hot this summer, here are five great ideas to try!
1. Have an indoor scavenger hunt
One way to keep the kids entertained without even leaving the house is to have a homemade scavenger hunt. Make a set of clues for each player, or have each player make their own set of clues and then trade. Consider using rhyming clues for young children to make it more fun. Each clue must lead to another clue, and so on, until the player reaches the treasure. You can use envelopes to hide your clues and offer a small price, like a toy or candy, to the person who solves the puzzles and wins the treasure first!
2. Create a family cookbook
Another fun family project that is sure to be time consuming is to involve the kids in creating a family cookbook. Not only will it be a fun way to spend summer afternoons, but it will also teach your children an important skill that they will definitely use when they move on to college or the world of work. Not only that, by the end of the summer your kids will have a healthy list of recipes that they can use to make dinners for the whole family! No more slaves on a hot stove for mom and dad.
3. Inner Camp
When it’s too hot to go camping outdoors (or the state park is too far), consider moving indoors for a picnic and camping. Offer kids a variety of materials—sheets, rope, cardboard boxes, foam pieces, or even an actual tent—and watch their creative instincts run wild as they build amazing forts of their own. They will get excited reading spooky campfire stories with a flashlight in their tents. Bonus points for making a picnic blanket out of crackers, cheese, and apple slices!
4. Head to the library
The library is a great place to take the kids when it’s too hot outside to play outside. Many libraries offer children’s summer reading programs that can be extremely helpful in instilling a lifelong love of reading in your children. They will get to earn points and often win prizes the more books they read. Also, many libraries offer story times for younger children. Beyond entertaining the kids for a few hours by letting them roam and read in the library, they often come home with hours of entertainment!
5. See a medieval exhibit
Another educational opportunity that will keep you fresh is taking the family to a display of medieval entertainment. Your children will learn a lot about what life was like in the Middle Ages when they see trained actors in period costume, dressed as nobles and court ladies, or in shining metal armor as knights. They will love eating an authentic medieval meal with their hands while watching an authentic display of jousting before their very eyes.
